The three tiers of government drew about N3.84 trillion as statutory allocations from the Federation Account between January and June this year, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) said in its latest Quarterly Review. The report released on Sunday in Abuja showed about N1.599 trillion went to the federal government, about N1.335 trillion to the 36 states, while the 774 local governments shared N792 billion.
During the same period, the transparency agency said the allocations to nine states, representing 25 per cent of the net disbursements to states, were higher than their allocations in the corresponding period of 2018. The report examined ‘‘FAAC Disbursements to the Federal, States and Local governments for the first half of 2019.”
NEITI said the total disbursement of N3.84 trillion was slightly lower than the N3.94 trillion disbursed during the same period in 2018. However, it was higher than the N2.78 trillion disbursed in the first half of 2017. Also, the total FAAC disbursements in the second quarter of 2019 were the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2017.
“The quarterly FAAC disbursements from the first quarter of 2013 to second quarter of 2019 showed total disbursement of N1.913 trillion in the second quarter of 2019 was the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2017 when N1.7 trillion was disbursed. The spokesperson of NEITI, Ogbonnaya Orji, said total disbursements in the three quarters of 2018 was above N2 trillion.
The NEITI Quarterly Review combined new data for the 2019 second quarter with previously examined data for the 2019 first quarter. It showed an increase in revenue in the first half of 2018 and 2017, which were not sustained in 2019. Revenues from the Federation Account in the first half of this year were slightly lower. Mr Orji said the N3.84 trillion shared in the first half of the year was about 2.6 per cent lower than the N3.946 trillion disbursed in the first half of last year, but 37.8 per cent higher than the N2.8 trillion disbursed in the first half of 2017.
The analysis was conducted using data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and FAAC. The analysis showed that “in the first half of 2019, total disbursements to the federal government were N1.599 trillion, amounting to about 41.61 per cent of the total amount disbursed over this period. The amount, NEITI said, was lower than the N1.652 trillion disbursed in the first half of 2018, but higher than the N1.098 trillion disbursed in the first half of 2017.
Also, disbursements to the federal government in the first half of 2019 were 3.22per cent lower than disbursements in the first half of 2018, but 45.56 per cent higher than disbursements in the first half of 2017”. Similarly, total disbursements to state governments in the first half of 2019 were N1.335 trillion, compared to N1.375 trillion and N923 billion in 2018 and 2017 respectively.
Mr Orji said this indicates the disbursement to states in the first half of 2019 was 2.9 per cent lower than the first half of 2018 but 44.7 per cent higher than the first half of 2017. Delta State maintained the lead among states of the federation with the highest share of FAAC allocation during the period with N108.7 billion receipt, while Osun received the lowest amount of N10.09 billion.
The report revealed an interesting pattern of wide disparities in disbursements to states. The 774 local government areas of the federation got N792 billion in the first half of 2019, compared to N795 billion and N549 billion respectively in the 2018 and 2017. By implication, the ‘‘disbursements to local governments in the first half of 2019 were 0.4 per cent below disbursements in the first half of 2018, but 44.11percent higher than disbursements in the first half of 2017,” the report stated.
The NEITI Quarterly Review is one of NEITI’s policy and advocacy instruments intended to provide timely information and data that could be used to support citizens’ engagement, advocacy, information sharing and enlightenment in the tracking of the use of extractive revenue for development purposes. Premium Times
